Rolling Stones- Beggars Banquet- Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman

In addition to watching the  Nick Broomfield rock doc The Stones and Brian Jones, don’t miss my Beggars Banquet episode here In the Studio with my interviews of many of the musicians who were actually there, including Rolling Stones original bass player Bill Wyman, Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger. Beggars Banquet was the last to have Rolling Stones co-founder Brian Jones included, and is considered to be the first great Stones album, plotting the unparalleled course forward for the Mick Jagger- Keith Richards songwriting team for the next half century. With songs “Street Fighting Man”,”Stray Cat Blues”, and the diabolical “Sympathy for the Devil”, my ultra-rare classic rock interviews with original Rolling Stones bass player Bill Wyman, Mick, and Keith as guests set the table for a Beggars Banquet.

Writing on AllMusic.com, one of our most trusted rock writers Richie Unterberger refers to the Rolling Stones’ 1967 album Their Satanic Majesties Request  as “… a fascinating anomaly in the group’s discography.” Four significant things occurred to explain in part why the follow up in late 1968, Beggars Banquet,  sounds so completely different: 1) Stones co-founder Brian Jones lost his high-profile model/girlfriend to another man, who just happened to be his band mate Keith Richards; 2) Jones attended the Monterey Pop Festival in full bloom of the San Francisco psychedelic scene but, most conspicuously, without his band;  3) Keith Richards finally found time to actually listen to all of those American blues and r&b records he had purchased on the Stones’ first trip to the U.S.; and 4) the Stones finally let go of their self-conscious competition with the Beatles, and found their own groove in embracing rough-hewn country blues.

There are timeless classics served up at this feast such as “Street Fighting Man” and the leering “Sympathy for the Devil”; chugging bloozy rockers “Stray Cat Blues” and “Parachute Woman”; and musical signposts “Dear Doctor” (their first stab at unabashed country and western) and the under-appreciated “Salt of the Earth”. And that does not count the non-album singles which bookended the album, “Jumping Jack Flash” and “Honky Tonk Women”! (L-R the late Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, and Stone alone Bill Wyman)

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and original Stones bass player and band historian  Bill Wyman are our dinner guests in these classic rock interviews.  – Redbeard